01-15-2004, 12:16 PM
[cool][size 1]Back in the late fifties (yeah I'm that old), I was a kid in California. I used to take an inner tube out to ride the waves off several beaches. When I was able to get out past the waves, I could often see fish swimming around, if the water was clear enough.[/size]
[size 1]That was enough for me. I started taking a small spinning rod and some bait out with me. If I didn't get beat to death by waves, I could paddle out with my hands and dunk bait for perch and smelt...and the occasional tomcod or small shark.[/size]
[size 1]In short order, I had started useing fins to propel me while sitting "side
dle" in the tube. Only after much experimenting did I come up with using a bigger tube and fashioning a seat so that I could sit down inside with my legs fully below the water. Some of my early experiments in seats almost made me a eunuch. Lucky I'm not fishing with a high pitched voice these days.[/size]
[size 1]I may not have been the inventor of float tubing, but I did invent it for me. I understand that some good old boys in Oklahoma were using inner tubes for bass fishing as early as the forties. [/size]
[size 1]They put together a commercially made cover for inner tubes and started the Fishmaster company. It was the first on the market. I got my first store bought tube in the mid 70's. It was a Fishmaster. I went through several of them before others began to hit the market. [/size]
[size 1]I probably fished out of twenty different "round boats" before getting my Kennebec about three or four years ago. Now I doubt I would ever get back in a donut, unless it was all that was available and there was some fishin' to be done. They still work as good as they ever have. Just that the open ended craft make launching and beaching so much easier.[/size]
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[size 1]That was enough for me. I started taking a small spinning rod and some bait out with me. If I didn't get beat to death by waves, I could paddle out with my hands and dunk bait for perch and smelt...and the occasional tomcod or small shark.[/size]
[size 1]In short order, I had started useing fins to propel me while sitting "side
dle" in the tube. Only after much experimenting did I come up with using a bigger tube and fashioning a seat so that I could sit down inside with my legs fully below the water. Some of my early experiments in seats almost made me a eunuch. Lucky I'm not fishing with a high pitched voice these days.[/size] [size 1]I may not have been the inventor of float tubing, but I did invent it for me. I understand that some good old boys in Oklahoma were using inner tubes for bass fishing as early as the forties. [/size]
[size 1]They put together a commercially made cover for inner tubes and started the Fishmaster company. It was the first on the market. I got my first store bought tube in the mid 70's. It was a Fishmaster. I went through several of them before others began to hit the market. [/size]
[size 1]I probably fished out of twenty different "round boats" before getting my Kennebec about three or four years ago. Now I doubt I would ever get back in a donut, unless it was all that was available and there was some fishin' to be done. They still work as good as they ever have. Just that the open ended craft make launching and beaching so much easier.[/size]
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